The management of Banco Sabadell does not consider it feasible for another bank to try to buy it back after the failure of the BBVA adventure. “There is no prospect of anyone trying again, because the three big banks (Santander, BBVA and Caixabank), which are the ones big enough to do it, already have sufficient size and their increase could lead to problems in issues such as competition, as seen in this takeover bid,” Sabadell CEO César González-Bueno said during the press conference outlining the quarterly results.
In turn, the manager indicated that Sabadell will not carry out any merger operation in the short term, although he acknowledged that it is an operation that could make sense. “Any integration between banks that are not part of the three big groups would make sense. For example, a merger between Kutxa and Abanca, between Ibercaja and Unicaja or any of them with us, because there is very little overlap in terms of geography, capabilities and knowledge. Everyone is good at their own thing, there would be improvements in revenues thanks to capabilities that would be extended to other places and also in costs. That said, they will not happen because at the moment everyone is satisfied with their strategy, results, territorial influence, perimeter and, since there is no will on anyone’s part, it will not happen,” explained González-Bueno, who in turn expressed his chest by saying that lately he has been “little” wrong, after predicting that the BBVA would be below 30% in the hostile takeover launched against Sabadell.
On the other hand, the entrepreneur underlined that his personal relationship with Carlos Torres, president of BBVA, is cordial and that WhatsApp messages were exchanged after learning the outcome of the takeover bid. An operation in which the obstacles that the executive placed so that BBVA could not achieve the desired synergies in the years following the acquisition have a lot to do. “It is very difficult to attribute specific causes to one thing or another. It was a whole series of circumstances that led us to this result. BBVA has turned the page and so have we; now we look forward”, concluded the CEO.
After the sale of the British branch TSB to Santander, which was one of the best performing business units and which is responsible for a good part of Sabadell’s profit growth in the first nine months of the year, González-Bueno ruled out the bank’s landing in other territories. The entity’s financial director, Sergio Palavecino, who accompanied him in the press conference, acknowledged that “it is interesting” to see how the bank will replace the contribution of TSB in the group’s accounts: “It is an important contribution and instead we say that we will maintain last year’s dividend per share. We believe that profitability in the Spanish perimeter will increase, there will be a certain reduction in the number of shares and in the meantime we must not forget that shareholders will receive around 2.5 billion (due to the mega-dividend resulting from the sale of TSB).”
